The present invention is related to sporting apparatus and, more particularly, to sporting apparatus associated with the game of golf and the like.
The game of golf is played using three varieties of clubs for the three portions of the game. In the first portion, the golfer attempts to drive the ball a substantial distance off a tee. For this purpose, the golfer uses a driver or a club with a metal head especially adapted for achieving distance. Usually, the drive positions the golf ball in a lie intermediate the tee and the green. From this intermediate position, the golfer attempts to hit the ball onto the green. For this purpose, various clubs adapted for distance, height and spin are used. When the ball reaches the green, the golfer employs a putter to accurately, it is hoped, launch the golf ball to the cup. When the golf ball falls in the cup, the golfer must bend over to retrieve it.
Putting is normally performed with a putter which includes a metallic head attached to a shaft. Conventionally, a putter has a generally flat sole which is inclined at a predetermined angle from the shaft. This requires that the shaft be swung at a predetermined angle so that the flat sole of the putter head can move parallel to the surface to strike the ball with a face which is located at one side of the head. On sloping ground, for example, in order to maintain the sole parallel to the sloping ground, the shaft must be inclined at a greater angle than is natural or convenient for the golfer.
As is well known, some people perform best as right handers and others perform best as left handers. It is estimated that approximately 10 percent of golfers are left-handed. Right-handed and left-handed golfers require different clubs due to the angle between the sole of the head and the axis of the shaft. Thus, separate right- and left-hand molds must be provided by a club manufacturer in order to satisfy the right-hand and left-hand market. Since the left-hand market is considerably smaller than the right-hand market, certain lines of golf clubs are unavailable to left-handed golfers.
For a large number of golfers, it is inconvenient, and sometimes impossible, to stoop or bend to pick up a golf ball due to age, stiffness or physical infirmity. This problem is further aggravated in attempting to retrieve a ball from a hole because the ball is in a position depressed several inches below the surface on which the golfer is supported. In response to this problem, some golfers have employed their putter to attempt to fish out the ball from the hole. A normal putter is ill shaped for this task and is usable in this way only by pressing the ball against the side of the hole and riding it upward until it emerges.
The above method of retrieving a golf ball from a hole with a putter does damage to the hole which is at least partly unprotected dirt. The dirt is abraded by the putter and the ball being dragged across it and tends to degrade the smoothness and desirable evenness of the hole.